Survey says

The elections came and went --and left almost everyone semi-happy.

Well, obviously the losers went home as losers, but that’s a risk they took voluntarily. Us voters sometimes have no choice but to swallow unpleasant election risks. The minute some semi-famous idiot decides to run, we suddenly absorb the risk of having that idiot elected by hoodwinked voters, and then we are left to suffer the consequence of non-existent governance.

These survey companies though. They’ve managed to make so many people unhappy --including themselves. And myself. Last election cycle, I refused to believe they were right in constantly predicting the juggernaut victory of the north-south alliance of the Marcos-Dutertes. I was dead wrong.

This next cycle, here I was thinking I learned my lesson. I was now content to leave the fortune-telling to the experts, and consequently, there I was churning out columns on the basis of their surveys. And look, there I went, blithely remarking on the impending downfall of Camille Villar and Imee Marcos, who then, just to spite me and prove everybody wrong, clung their way to the Magic 12.

It’s the fault of these surveys.

That’s the same thought percolating in the heads of the has-been actors and ex- and present convicts who ran and pretty much cruised along the campaign season. I bet if the candidates knew how inaccurate the surveys were going to be, especially amongst millennial and Gen-z voters, who are now coming of age and into their own, those candidates would have ran like they were possessed.

Much like Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan, whom, the surveys consistently showed, were languishing in the mid-hohum levels for all of the campaign season. Those dismal numbers whupped them good, and urged them to gallop like crazy. And so they did, campaigning north and south and everywhere else, allowing them Cinderella finishes in the top half of the Senate draw. Those two senators-elect are probably the only ones thanking the surveys at this point.

Analysts think that the Duterte-Marcos infighting resulted in the two forces just canceling each other out, allowing the pink and yellow alliance of Aquino and Pangilinan to emerge as victors. That may well be true, but it doesn’t explain why in so many areas, actors, influencers, comedians, and models who had nothing to offer except fame, vacuous smiles, and some notoriety, all lost their campaigns.

The other theory posits that this new power bloc of voters, millennials and Gen-Z, have the power of discernment, are tired of traditional politics, and/or are more able to ferret out truth from pro-active digging of the web. That would certainly be an attractive proposition --it makes the future so much brighter.

We just spent the last three years wailing about the loss of Vice President Leni Robredo, and bemoaning the future of the country. Six years of the economy in the hands of, well, not Robredo. A war of aggression by Russia. Genocide being committed in Palestine. Trump winning again. Doom and gloom.

Then here comes a new generation who threaten to upend conventional thinking. And who have been ignored by the survey companies. What are they thinking? What will they decide? Where will they steer this country to?

In three years, more new voters will have come of age. Will they be able to make these gradual shifts a permanent change in direction? Will they continue to elect new faces into power? Will they continue to reject the old dynastic families and the simpering, dancing puppets?

Or will a new wave of disinformation sweep the country? At this point, we probably need to thank the stars we have no equivalent of a Fox News network in this part of town, constantly barraging mindless consumers with pre-programmed talking points. The Congressional scourge on influencers and fake news purveyors have had an effect on the gushing bile of disinformation.

It’s the age-old struggle between truth and falsity, good and evil. Perhaps, this year, the survey companies were lost in purgatory.